Finance Minister Lawrence Wong delivered Singapore’s Budget 2024 on 16 February 2024. The budget comes after a difficult 2023 in whichthe international environment was troubled, the global economy was subdued and Singapore’s own economy grew by a modest 1.1%, fortunately avoiding a recession.
In the year ahead, Minister Wong noted...
Local business sentiment has weakened with only 25% of businesses confident that the economy will improve in the next 12 months, compared to 41% a year before.
The top challenge faced by businesses is an increase in business cost (58%) with manpower cost cited as the key component (75%) followed...
SGTech has launched the ‘Generative AI for the Tech Workforce’ as a dedicated resource aimed at driving digital transformation for businesses. This resource guide will aid businesses such as SMEs, to leverage the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence or GenAI solutions and the corresponding training needs for their employees...
Capital Markets Malaysia ("CMM"), an affiliate of the Securities Commission Malaysia ("SC"), has launched a Simplified ESG Disclosure Guide ("SEDG"), making Malaysia the first country globally to provide small-to-medium enterprises ("SMEs") within global supply chains with a streamlined and standardised set of guidelines in relation to environment, social and governance ("ESG") disclosures.The...
An IDC report, The Impact of Digital Sovereignty in Asia/Pacific Governments, revealed how Asia/Pacific (AP) governments motivations to create digital sovereignty will shape technology investment priorities, regulatory frameworks, partnerships and skills in 2024.
IDC defines digital sovereignty, from a government perspective, as ‘the capacity for digital self-determination by a nation across...
In the first instalment of our two-part feature, SMEhorizon spoke with Ray Poh, Founder and Managing Director of Artisan Green, on his company’s partnership with Siemens, and how technology has enabled them to meet both productivity and sustainability goals. Isabel Chong, Head of Digital Industries for ASEAN at Siemens...
Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) today launched the cross-border quick response (QR) payment linkage between Indonesia and Singapore. This linkage enables customers of participating financial institutions1 to make seamless cross-border retail payments using their existing mobile banking applications to scan QRIS (Quick Response Code...
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) have jointly launched the real-time payment systems linkage between Singapore’s PayNow and Malaysia’s DuitNow.
The initiative follows the QR payment linkage announced on 31 March 2023 which enabled cross-border QR payments to merchants.
The PayNow-DuitNow linkage enables instant, secure and...
Singapore is often lauded as a food paradise. Yet, according to the Singapore Food Agency, the country imports more than 90% of its food, making it vulnerable to food supply chain disruptions that could occur due to global factors such as climate change, disease outbreaks, geopolitical developments or export...
With the consumer world waking up and jumping on the bandwagon of Generative AI, new research by the Data Protection Excellence Centre, the research arm of Straits Interactive, has unveiled significant privacy concerns in Generative AI desktop applications, particularly among start-ups and individual developers.
The study, covering 113 popular apps,...
